No Need For Southbury Training School

Op-ed writers Martha Dwyer and Tamie Hopp would prefer you continue to believe Southbury Training School residents are unable to live and be cared for outside of that institution -- they would rather scare families than educate them [Feb. 22, "Use Southbuty Training School Effectively"].

The truth is that people with intellectual disabilities can and do live in the community successfully, even if they have lived a long time in an institution. Thousands of people have moved out of institutions in this country over the past 30 years, and all studies of these former residents show that they do better in the community, including those with the most profound challenges and those who were long-term residents of institutions.

Fourteen states have no institutions, and their citizens, regardless of their level of need, are getting comparable, high-quality services in community-based settings.

Our state run institutions are not and never will be efficient. At approximately $400,000 per person per year -- compared to $130,000 for placement in a privately operated group home -- continued operation of these archaic and embarrassingly inefficient state-run institutions is one of the greatest obstacles to addressing the waiting list for residential placements.

The truth is that such institutions are, to quote state Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr., a form of apartheid. They are indefensible.

Shelagh P. McClure, West Hartford

The writer is the chairwoman of the Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities and a parent of an adult son with a disability.